To Race a Dream - Softcover

Savage, Deborah

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0064406113 ISBN 13: 9780064406116

Publisher: HarperCollins, 1996

Synopsis

In 1906, fifteen-year-old Theodora disguises herself as a boy to pursue her dream of becoming a race horse driver

About this title

About the Author:

Lisa Falkenstern has worked as an illustrator for twenty years, since she graduated from Parsons School of Design. A Treasury of Mermaids is the first book she has illustrated for children. Ms. Falkenstern currently resides in New Jersey.

From Booklist:

Gr. 6-9. Despite the book's young-looking jacket illustration and a small-town, early-twentieth-century Minnesota backdrop that won't be familiar to readers, Theodora Stevenson comes across as a credible 15-year-old. She has won the academic prize at her school, but her dream is to be a harness-racing driver. A legendary horse, Dan Patch, is quartered nearby--so close, yet so far for a girl who wants to drive. Theodora's parents don't approve of her dream, viewing their older daughter Claudia's career as a symphony violinist as the approved model for success. When Claudia begins a fight with polio, the family becomes so preoccupied that Theo is able to disguise herself as a boy and sneak away to work as a stable hand. She is aided by her friend Carl, who becomes, during that summer, a boyfriend. What is difficult to summarize is actually wonderful reading, conjuring not only images of Farley's Black Stallion and the courtship of Laura and Almanzo Wilder, but also parent-child conflicts that seem very contemporary. Savage's prose conveys the loneliness of not being like others, along with the intensity of wanting to be something special and the anger at finding how difficult that can be. The book's beginning chapters are slow, but once Theo starts her job at the horse farm, the story, which draws on a bit of Savage's family history (her great-grandfather owned a horse named Dan Patch), spins out beautifully. -Mary Harris Veeder

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0064406113
• ISBN 13: 9780064406116
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256
• Illustrator: Falkenstern Lisa